How Can You Encourage a Client to Maintain Momentum in their Personal Growth?
Ensuring lasting growth after coaching can be a challenge, so we've gathered seven insights from top Executive Coaches and Leadership Coaches on how to keep clients on an upward trajectory. From partnering for mutual accountability to building a habit of self-reflection, discover a range of strategies to encourage continuous personal and professional development post-coaching.
- Partner for Mutual Accountability
- Foster a Curiosity Mindset
- Implement Key Post-Coaching Strategies
- Introduce Self-Directed Mini-Challenges
- Develop a True North Plan
- Create a Personal Go-Forward Plan
- Build a Habit of Self-Reflection
Partner for Mutual Accountability
Find another leader whom you trust and respect. Form a partnership to hold each other accountable. Get yourself an accountability buddy.
Foster a Curiosity Mindset
I've encouraged clients to maintain momentum in their personal and professional growth after our coaching sessions are completed by fostering a curiosity mindset. I emphasize the importance of staying open to new ideas, asking thoughtful questions, and stepping outside their comfort zone to explore areas that pique their interest.
Encouraging them to regularly seek new experiences and perspectives keeps them engaged in continuous learning and growth. This curiosity-driven approach helps them adapt to unexpected challenges, embrace growth opportunities, and sustain their personal and professional development beyond the coaching relationship.
Implement Key Post-Coaching Strategies
To help clients sustain their momentum after coaching, I encourage them to implement a few key strategies:
1. Set Clear, Achievable Goals: I encourage clients to define SMART—specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound—goals for the next 12 months. I have them write these in the present tense so they can visualize them coming to fruition.
2. Establish a Regular Reflection Practice: I recommend clients schedule monthly or quarterly reviews of their progress. This allows them to reflect on their achievements, challenges, and it makes performance reviews a breeze. Using a journal or digital tool to track these helps them stay focused.
3. Leverage Networking Opportunities: With the frequency of unexpected career changes, I advise clients to continue engaging with their contacts through networking, podcast guest opportunities, speaking engagements, or industry conferences. This not only helps them maintain visibility but also reinforces their expertise and opens doors for new opportunities.
Introduce Self-Directed Mini-Challenges
One strategy I’ve really been leaning into to support clients’ maintenance and sustainment between sessions is what I call a self-directed mini-challenge. The gist is this: the coach suggests very small, approachable challenges that the client can run on their own. The coach can suggest the format but is open to suggestions from the client. This feels like a personalized take-charge undertaking—the client doing the work on their own—which maintains the client’s sense of ownership and which feels less like an ominous open-ended project, and more like a series of little victories.
For instance, I was working with an executive coaching client who was doing some development work on public speaking as a leadership skill we thought she could benefit from. After our series of formal one-on-one coaching, I challenged her to specifically speak at least once at a public event each month. This not only provided her with opportunities to practice what she was learning but also helped her do so in an incremental way that led to her growing confidence. She later reported to me that this type of challenge made the end of our formal coaching naturally flow and intuitively lead to the next step of her development without losing momentum.
Develop a True North Plan
It is very important to have a strong development plan that is aimed toward True North. This can be a reading list, training courses, intentionally performing certain tasks that are weak, or many other options. It is also important that when formal coaching ceases, coaching continues in the life of the individual. Identifying where this comes from is very important.
Seeking a mentor and creating a personal board of directors that can be reached for input is very important. Likewise, it is important that they are aligned with True North, so they don't direct them in the wrong direction. Learning should never stop but should be intentionally directed onto the path that we desire to go.
Create a Personal Go-Forward Plan
Typically, during the final session with a client, we will review all their progress from our time together along with the associated learnings. This allows the client to do some deep reflection on the impact of changes they have made thus far. Then, we work together to create a “go-forward plan” to help the client continue their growth on their own. The client takes ownership and ultimately decides what to prioritize on their plan, which increases the probability that they will continue to make progress. I also encourage the client to keep our 1-hour slot on their calendar going forward as dedicated time to check in with themselves to gauge progress on their plan and to course-correct as needed.
Build a Habit of Self-Reflection
One way I encourage my clients to maintain momentum after coaching concludes is by building a habit of self-reflection through a 'Weekly Wins and Lessons' journal. It's a simple tool that keeps the focus on progress while fostering continuous learning.
Each week, my clients take 10 minutes to write down two key things: first, what went well (their 'wins'), and second, what they learned (even if the week felt challenging). This practice not only reinforces positive behaviors but also helps them see challenges as opportunities for growth. Over time, it becomes a habit of celebrating progress and identifying areas for improvement without the need for external validation or feedback.
By creating this self-reflection loop, clients can maintain the growth mindset they've developed during our coaching sessions and stay accountable to themselves in the long term.
